By Madison Huizinga, DWC Blog Editor

Photo Credit: Jazley Faith and Amy Howton — *Photo Credit:* Jazley Faith and Amy Howton

All aspiring ballerinas know that dancing in pointe shoes is the hallmark of being a professional ballet dancer. Yet, misinformation about fitting pointe shoes circulates across the country, leading many dancers to endure poor fittings and, in the worst cases, injuries. Entrepreneur, international award-winning speaker, and pointe shoe fitter extraordinaire Josephine Lee has made it her goal to offer educated and personalized pointe shoe fittings that leave dancers feeling empowered with information. Through her work at ThePointeShop, and her recent partnership with Dancewear Center, Josephine strives to promote education and inclusivity in all she does.

Josephine’s dance journey begins at age three when she was enrolled in a ballet class. Two years later, Josephine and her family moved to Korea. She explains that, at the time, ballet training in Korea was quite rigorous and people only began if they were seriously considering a career as a professional dancer. Thus, Josephine’s training became more intense and she also picked up Korean folk dancing as an additional focus in her dance studies. Her training persisted as she and her family moved to Southern California when she was 10 years old. Soon after the move, Josephine’s mother, a former dancer, started her own dance store. “She became known as a really good [pointe shoe] fitter in that region,” Josephine says of her mother. Josephine learned how to fit pointe shoes herself at her mother’s store as a teenager. After graduating from USC, Josephine followed in her mom’s footsteps and started her own retail dance store.

“It was very difficult to find [pointe shoe] fitters who were knowledgeable and fitters who had a well-stocked inventory. So we decided to focus on that,” Josephine says of the inspiration behind ThePointeShop. “A few years later, I closed the retail portion...and just switched to pointe shoes.” Ten years after the store was created, ThePointeShop is the only dance store in the country that solely carries pointe shoes and focuses on pointe shoe fittings.

Pointe shoes are undoubtedly one of the most challenging items to carry at a dance store, as they can be difficult to stock thoroughly and fit correctly. For that reason, Josephine has made it her mission to educate the public on how to fit pointe shoes properly. “We have a very similar mission as [Dancewear Center]. We want to help the public get a little bit more educated [about pointe shoes] and hopefully bridge the gap between dance and science,” Josephine says of ThePointeShop’s goal as a business.

While Josephine has years of fitting experience from working with her mother, she is still constantly learning new information about pointe shoes through her work. “Every day I meet a dancer who stumps me or I see something interesting that I haven’t seen before,” she says. “I love that challenge and that continual education. Even though it seems like such a small thing...the education that comes along with it is endless.”

In tandem with its individualized pointe shoe fittings, ThePointeShop has created a prolific name for itself on social media, amassing over 35,000 followers on Instagram and 71,000 subscribers on YouTube “If the Internet or social media didn’t exist, our company wouldn’t exist,” Josephine says. ThePointeShop mainly focused on Facebook promotion when it first began, before migrating to Instagram, and later to YouTube. “The reason why we went so social heavy at the beginning was because we didn’t have a marketing budget...social media was a key component in how to spread the word. And instead of focusing on advertisements and sales, we decided to focus more on education and giving back to the public.”

With her background in broadcast journalism and public speaking, Josephine found that her prior life experiences helped her create a prominent social media presence for ThePointeShop. She believes that the best form of advertisement is “giving enough value to the audience [so] they gain your trust.” From her informative pointe shoe fittings with a wide array of dancers to her entertaining “reaction” videos to ballet TikToks, Josephine offers audiences “value” in a variety of capacities.

Dancewear Center recently announced that it will be employing the Progressive Pointe Method when fitting pointe shoes with the support of ThePointeShop. “I’m a big believer that you can teach any skill to anybody if you are committed to teaching somebody something. But I think what is more important to me is integrity and the type of message and the kindness that Dancewear Center has always been committed to,” Josephine says of the partnership. “[Dancewear Center has] always been a big advocate for spreading awareness and helping the dance community as a whole...and I really love that collaborative spirit. I really love that inclusivity.”

In the spirit of collaboration and inclusivity, Josephine hopes to see more empathy and understanding in the dance world. “I think a lot of problems stem from not being able to communicate how you’re feeling, what you’re going through, how to get through things, your different options, etc.” She points out that after years of suppressing their issues, many dancers aren’t fully capable of articulating the problems they’re experiencing. “Having a little bit more empathy towards dancers and a little bit more awareness...is very necessary in the dance world and I think it will solve a lot of problems.”

Josephine is a founding member of DanseMedica, and will be at DWC Renton on Saturday, July 30th during the Dance Teacher Conference. Josephine will be speaking along with a panel of other dance educators. Click here to register now!